pistoldrew's Blog

Fish increasingly taking on tranny traits.
3rd July 2009
By pistoldrew

Fish are unique creatures in terms of sexuality. Some can reproduce by themselves, some can procreate with members of the same sex and some even change sex themselves. The Discovery Channel is reporting that around the world, there are an increasing number of male fish developing female traits, including growing new sexual organs and sometimes even producing eggs. The phenomenon has been blamed mostly on chemicals that get into the water and mimic the female hormone estrogen. But a new study released has put some of the blame on an entirely different class of chemicals - ones that block the action of male hormones called androgens.
It isn't the first study to suggest that anti-androgens might be contributing to the feminization of fish. But the new research found that there are far more of these chemicals in our lakes and streams than anyone realized. And anti-androgenic chemicals in the water might affect human health as well.
"They are going to be some potent players," said Charles Tyler, an ecotoxicologist at the University of Exeter in England. "It is possible that there are going to be many more chemicals that are anti-androgenic than are estrogenic."
Tyler, along with Susan Jobling at Brunel University in London and other colleagues, looked at chemical run-off in 51 rivers throughout the United Kingdom. By combining concentrated water samples with cultures of yeast genetically engineered to have androgen receptors, the scientists were able to measure the amount of anti-androgen activity in each sample.
The researchers' results, published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, revealed a significant amount of anti-androgenic activity in nearly all of the samples tested.